Dragon Girl
by IronSpockMaster
Summary: Hermione visits Romania during a family holiday. While she is there she meets a mysterious red haired man searching for something. He's older and she recognises him. Childhood crushes are always the strongest.


**Dragon Girl**

Hermione dug her sandals into the dusty ground.

It was hot. Too hot. A dry heat that dried out your body and your lungs, making it difficult to draw a breath.

It was better that moist, humid heat, but it was still too hot.

The glare from the sun bit into her eyes, drilling into her head and morphing into a killer headache.

She looked back, but the hotel was a good mile away and she didn't have the strength to walk back to it. She hadn't realised that she had wandered so far.

She scanned the area. She had been following a dirt track the entire way here and a few paces ahead of her there stood an old, gnarled tree. It appeared to give a little shelter so she decided that she would sit beneath it for a few minutes.

She dropped to the ground, her bare knees scraping the tree roots. It was so hot. Her hand strayed to her pocket, towards her wand, but it was the summer holidays. She wasn't allowed to do magic, and she wasn't in the Burrow with the Weasleys where it would go unnoticed. She didn't know if the underage wizard tracking spell reached as far as Romania, her parent's chosen holiday destination, but she didn't want to risk it.

She checked the muggle watch on her wrist; she had plenty of time until her parents expected her back at the hotel. They were going to visit Dracula's castle later on in the day. Hermione laughed softly to herself. It was funny how little her parents knew about the world. Dracula wasn't a myth. He had been a real man. A real vampire. She had read about him.

She closed her eyes. Just sitting would have to do for now.

There were footsteps, beating along the path. And shouting. Loud shouting.

"It went that way. Sergio said he saw it, heading over towards Cluj!"

Hermione opened her eyes and leapt to her feet. There were three men on the path in front of her, their eyes frantically searching the sky.

"It's not here," said one of the men, slumping dejectedly. "We missed it."

Another man, a red head, who reminded her, surprisingly enough, of Ron, pointed his wand up into the sky. Blue sparks shot from it, climbing high into the sky before disappearing into the atmosphere.

"I've marked it," he said. "Let's go."

Hermione took her chance. They were wizarding folk, so surely they could help her out.

"Hey," she said, her throat dry."

The red head turned round. Now that she could see his face, she realised that he was almost the spitting double of Ron, except for the shape of the nose and the stubble around his chin. His eyes were different as well. They crinkled where Ron's were smooth.

"Crap," he said, pocketing his wand.

"I'm a witch," said Hermione, drawing herself to her full height. "Do you have any water?"

The man looked surprised, but he was kind hearted, and the girl in front of him looked as if she couldn't be older than twelve.

"You go on ahead," he said to the others, waving his hands. "Move in towards Cluj; that was the last sighting, wasn't it? It's a big beast, we should spot it soon, or at least some of the destruction it'll have caused."

One of the other men said something in a foreign language, it must have been Romanian.

The red head turned to face him and said something back, angrily.

The Romanian man rolled his eyes and disappeared with a loud crack. The other men followed within a second.

"Water," said the red head, smiling at Hermione. "Here you go." He reached into his pocket and brought out a large water carrier, which he handed to Hermione. It was heavy, but she managed to get a grip on it and took a well needed drink.

"Thank you," she said. "Has your pocket got an enlarging spell on it? I've read about those. You can carry anything in tiny bags!"

The man smiled. "Yes it has. You're clever, aren't you?"

Hermione bubbled with pride.

"I'm Hermione," she said, holding out her hand. "I'm staying at the hotel in Hunedoara."

The red headed man shook her hand. "That's a good mile or so away. You walked all that way by yourself?"

Hermione nodded.

"Wow..." said the man. "You're pretty tough for a little girl. I'm Charlie, by the way. Charlie Weasley."

He was Ron's brother... Something about that thought made Hermione rather pleased.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, not mentioning that she knew Ron.

"A rogue dragon," said Charlie. "It's escaped. Which reminds me, I really need to be on my way. Its last sighting was near Cluj, which is a big, built up city full of muggles. Not a nice place for a dragon to be. And if she gets there, it won't be a nice place for the muggles to be either."

"I hope you catch her," said Hermione, looking up at the man in awe.

"I hope we do to," Charlie said. "Goodbye. You'll be alright, won't you?"

"Of course I will," said Hermione, her hand still clutching the water carrier.

Charlie turned on his heel and disappeared with a loud crack.

She still had his water carrier.

Despite it being heavy, she wasn't going to leave it out here on the road. She was going to keep it.

Who'd have known? Ron's brother?

Hermione smiled to herself as she began lugging the water carrier back to the town. She liked Charlie.

The End

**AN: This was written for round 2 of the **Your Goal: 34 Stories, Our Gift: 106 Reviews challenge on HPFC.****


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